1. Technical Field
This invention relates to doweling machines, and more particularly to a high speed dowel hole drilling machine adaptable to several different machine tools for rotating drilling elements at high speed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Doweling is the process of joining two structural elements, usually wooden, to each other along two adjoining surfaces using one or more pegs, each peg inserted at each end into a dowel hole extending perpendicularly into one of said surfaces. Doweled joints are generally stronger than simple glued joints. Strong doweled joints require the dowel holes to be absolutely perpendicular to the joined surface of the element in which they are drilled. Skewed dowel holes can produce stresses on the peg, weakening the resulting joint, as well as considerably complicating the insertion of the peg into the hole. Examples of specially adapted or designed machines for drilling dowel holes are found in Palma, U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,031 for Apparatus and Method for Drilling Dowel Holes, Albano, U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,565 for Precise Dowel Joint Woodworking Device, and Brower, U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,917 for Doweling Guide. Most such conventional dowel hole drilling machines use a relatively low speed drilling element, rotating at speeds under 5,000 RPM. Such low drilling speeds produce significant vibration in the workpiece, requiring some sturdy means for clamping the workpiece to prevent misalignment of the resulting hole. Low speed dowel hole drilling machines also necessarily require more time to drill a single dowel hole than does a high speed dowel hole drilling machine.